It has been a practice to incorporate natural gums such as carrageenan and curdlan, to livestock and fish meat products in order to prevent syneresis, improve water holding capacities, improve bonding properties, impart viscoelasticity, increase in quantity, etc., as is shown in JP-A-5-260927 and JP-A-4-40849 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"). However, when the natural gums are used in an attempt to induce these effects, they may bring about an undesirable heavy texture due to their high viscosity.
Also, cellulose and fine cellulose are occasionally added to meat products to improve the texture, increase yield, improve cloudiness, etc., as described in JP-A-6-343423 and JP-A-8-51956. When employed alone, however, cellulose or fine cellulose cannot sufficiently achieve the effects of inhibiting syneresis and improving water holding capacities.
JP-B-57-14771 discloses food stabilizers comprising a composite of microcrystalline cellulose, carrageenan and maltodextrin (the term "JP-B" as used herein means an "examined Japanese patent application"). In general, carrageenan is classified into three types differing in characteristics depending on the algae source. Namely, .lambda.-carrageenan is highly soluble in water and does not relate and .kappa.-carrageenan and .iota.-carrageenan are soluble in hot water and relate. Although the carrageenan employed in the patent cited above is merely described as carrageenan, it is described therein that the gums either have a large swelling power or are quickly dissolved in water. It is therefore assumed that .lambda.-carrageenan was employed in the above case.
An object of the present invention is to provide a stabilizer for meat products which is effective in preventing syneresis, improving water holding capacities, increasing yield, improving texture, improving cloudiness, etc. of foods, particularly, meat products with the use of livestock meats and fish. Another object of the present invention is to provide meat product compositions which can prevent syneresis, improve water holding capacities, yield, texture, cloudiness, etc. by incorporation of the stabilizer for meat products.